By Pemphero Malimba:
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services needs K10 billion to improve service delivery in the 2025-26 fiscal year, a senior official has indicated.
The department’s acting director general (DG) Fletcher Nyirenda said on Thursday, when he engaged members of the Defence and International Relations Cluster of Parliament, that part of the funds would be used for the implementation of a permanent solution to the provision of passport services in the 2025-26 financial year.
“As you are aware, we have been implementing a temporary passport solution from March last year but, now, we have been trying to make sure that we bring on board a permanent solution to make sure that we should fully set up the new system,” Nyirenda said.
The acting DG said steps were being taken to put in place the new system, with the contract valued at $29 million (approximately K50,779, 000, 000].
“We just finalised the processes and, very soon, we will hold technical discussions with them [the contractor].
“On our end, we have already lined up the way we want to transition to the permanent solution to run away from the challenges we had with the temporary system,” Nyirenda said.
Meanwhile, cluster co-chairperson Salim Bagus has warned the department to tread carefully on contract issues.
“We are satisfied with news of the new contract but we have told them to take precautionary measures because you saw what happened in the past [when they had a feud with a contractor].
“We say ‘yes’ to the new contract but we have asked them to make sure that the new contract has a clause that ensures that there are no disruptions to service delivery when they are waiting to have a new contractor or when they want to renew the contract,” Bagus said.
The contract between the Malawi Government and e-passport supplier E-Tech Systems came to an end at the end of November last year.
The development followed the expiry of a three-month extension period that the Malawi Government signed with the firm.
The Government of Malawi extended its contract with E-Tech for an additional three months from August last year.
The initial six-month contract period ended in August but the government extended it by three more months because its officials said they wanted to have an opportunity to look for a new supplier.
E-Tech was identified to replace Techno Brain Limited, whose contract was terminated.
This also followed the suspension of passport printing services across the country after the system was allegedly hacked.
Director General at the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority Eddingtone Chilapondwa said at the time that they had cleared a bidding contract for the new supplier of e-passports.
“They flouted a tender,” he said.
Principal Secretary for Homeland Security Steven Kayuni has been saying the government wants to establish a long-term solution for passport issuance challenges in the country.
Kayuni indicated that they were using two strategies as they sought to address passport issuance and other service delivery issues.
“Temporary solutions and permanent solutions were always part of the strategy,” Kayuni said.
Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda presented the 2025-26 financial year’s proposed budget on Friday last week.
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